To those not renewing their Season Ticket

Unsure.

I haven't really had the inclination to go regularly since my Dad passed, and I think that the whole business of football is too expensive today to justify me going on a regular basis.

I've been more and more distant from the club in recent years, mainly due to my own circumstances. It's not necessarily performances etc, as I went regularly to watch Paul Gibbs, Kevin Donovan and Maceo Rigters - so I don't think it's anything to do with how successful we are either.

I just think my priorities have changed.

 

Sormaz to go and very soon.
Price reduction ( not paying any more than I have this season).
A big clear out and show of ambition.

the board selling up would be nice as they are killing the club but I’ll wait for that.

on a separate note how’s the installation of the rail seating going ? Was supposed to start after Huddersfield wasn’t it ?

 

Quite simply, new owners, until that happens I won’t renew. No matter what. I have 0% trust in these owners to start improving at all.

But then the whole match day experience needs to change. Starting with Oakwell itself. Vast improvements needed, & not just a lick of paint.

 

I don’t think a game of bingo will help, it will be too difficult to keep track of who’s sweating . I’ll get mi coyt

 

Oakwell and the 'fan experience' are down the list for me, although they are $hit and ultimately need to be improved. Priority is to cut out the rot that seems to have infested the whole structure of the club from top to bottom. That starts with Sormaz. He might be a nice guy, but he's so far out of his depth he needs scuba gear. Not, in the slightest bit, a football man. Clearly knows diddly squat about the requirements at this level. We either bring in a seasoned former player/manager who does know, or we abandon that model. We managed perfectly well without a DOF/SD for many, many years, so why not now. Someone has tried to map little old Barnsley onto the template of the big PL clubs and it just isn't going to work.

Back to basics. Bring in wise, old heads.

Appoint a proper manager, who's got first and last word on what he needs and who might fill those gaps.

More transparency and HONESTY from the owners and execs. Stop the jobs-for-your-mates policy that has saddled us with people who are ridiculously unqualified and showing it. Strip the numbers- we don't need three different tiers of club secretary. We really, really don't. Bring in people who know the club inside out and genuinely care about our town.

On the pitch, it's also back to basics. We grow up playing 4-4-2. It's in our DNA. You flex that formation. If you have the ball you run with it or pass to someone who can. If you're off the ball, you find space, either to receive the ball or to occupy opposition players.

Sensible recruitment. Abandon the data model. We were good at it years ago, not now and most other clubs are using it far better than us. Aim to have two decent players for every position. Stop the scattergun approach to signings. It's like watching someone panning for fu¢king gold....

Get these few things right and much of the rest will fall into place

 

Current owners to either go or appreciate that success on field is more important to fans than trying to buy players on the basis of trying to find bargains to sell on rather than how they fit into the team . Sack the DoF and start looking for an experienced or decent prospect manager who is going to run the team without interference from above.

 

I think my decision to not renew (90% certain) is probably a little different to a lot of other people - my son is going to have his own family from July this year and won't be able to get to most home matches himself. Him not coming has a big bearing on me being there, the match is a big part of catching up with him. The group I used to go to the match with stopped going a long time ago. I don't know the people sat around me.

Add to this there's little in the way of entertainment, pre-match, at half time or during the 90 minutes for me to want to venture to Oakwell for. The few games he missed this season I struggled to make it through, I spent most of the matches with thoughts of what else I could be doing with my afternoon that would be more constructive.

I'm not particularly happy about the fixture changes either. I want to watch football on a Saturday afternoon at 3pm. I don't mind the odd midweek game but all the moving to Friday evening, Saturday lunchtime etc just doesn't sit well with me.

And yet, I still have a nagging doubt that I want to be there next season. Because things can improve right? We could start to play decent football again.

 

Sadly nothing I think. This has been my 3rd season without one and I've well and truly disconnected from attending Oakwell. Haven't been to a home game in all that time.
Been to maybe half a dozen away games.

 

If they get the TVs working in the ESL, and said TVs display the price of a Pie and a Pint, will that help?

 

Sormaz to go

Board show genuine ambition

Bring in a head coach that can play front football, but ultimately chooses how he moulds his team.

Back a head coach

Recruit to a 4231

Have a plan B

Stop bringing in crap loans

Appear to build something

 

That is very similar to my dilema at the end of the 2013/14 season. I started going in 1974 so I'd seen the sublime to the ridiculous. I decided not to renew, it wasn't the cash it was that I was making myself dread match days. I thought I'd miss it but I've only been a handful of times since then.

I admire folk who can commit to the club, it's just not me.

 

You sound like a bloke that sits near me.

 

Also lets not forget that its not just about how the club improve. People will find new habits once they stop going. There are many more alternatives to keep people interested in other stuff. Its hard to go back once the habit of going is replaced by something else.

 

Compare to Mansfield yesterday. Robin Hood car park 2 minutes from the ground. Bargain £4 for 24 hour parking. Away straight away with police patrolling the surrounding streets which made things feel safer in case fans decided to keep crossing the roads when the traffic light was on green.

Great set up.

 

Lots of the above, and a feeling that the club is actually genuinely bothered about me and all the other fans. The last few years have all been about a corporate, profit-seeking model of football where community, fan engagement and entertainment on the pitch have been secondary considerations. I'm not really loved or respected by the club anymore. I'm a side-issue. I can't really see that changing with the way modern football and our club is run. I'm dipping my toe in again this season at the Exeter game after just watching them on the telly this season. I should be going every week like I used to do when we were a well-run club with a board which was genuinely rooted in doing the best for the town and the working-class inhabitants who have tough lives and who want a club to give them some hope and inspiration.

 

For me at least, it boils down to desire.

I still care, but it’s definitely fading. Lots of reasons for that, and some are probably only pertinent to myself, but there has to be a point to it. I’ve a lot that I enjoy doing, that I struggle to fit in as it is. I don’t do anything else in my life ‘just because’. I’m 43 soon. I’ve a relative, who at 47 has just been given a couple of months to live. That was another eye-opener. Life is short and I’ll spend my free time on things that add value to it in some fashion.

I doubt I’ll be going to any of the remaining games this season. The club and its players look like they’re going through the motions. I really wanted to see something yesterday that might stir me. Especially with Conor now at the helm. But it was just depressing.

 

Leadership.
Direction.
Ambition.



that’s it. It’s not difficult.

 

Best wishes to your family in difficult times

 

Safe standing happening after Huddersfield went quiet. Mansfield have it down the side in the upper tier by the corner flag at the away end side.

 

It's a really difficult one this. On the one hand, I have it in mind that, at 56, and with years of unbroken season tickets behind me, the club will honour the promise of treating me as a senior in only 4 years, instead of waiting until I am, what, 65, if I break the chain?. Saving me around £750 over those 5 years perhaps. But when you think about it, if I just stop going, I'll save at least that much in 2 years.

I have several friends who I only really see through football, and that is a strong reason to keep going to me. But the truth is, I don't really enjoy going at the moment, it's a real chore, and I feel like I am doing it, as YT says, "just because". The football bores me to tears and the whole match day experience is awful. Every time I go away, I see other clubs of our size or smaller who do it much better. Stevenage for example, have a superb large bar behind the stand. We seem to make the whole experience as deliberately joyless as possible. Even the pre match comms that comes on here from Newsbot is invariably a joyless list of do's and don'ts. I don't feel like I am appreciated in any way. And Oakwell, whilst not falling apart, just has the whiff of neglect running through it like a stick of rock.

The sacking of DC has really pissed me off, not because of me thinking he was the best manager, but because it smacks so depressingly of "here we go again, round and round" and I just have no faith that it will improve. DC was not the best manager we have ever had but he clearly was not the main problem and sacking him will not of itself improve anything.

I just don't know. I will probably give in and get a ST, but it won't be early bird. I want to see what they do first. But if my friends who I see through football only decided to knock it on the head, there would be literally no good reason to renew. And if I didn't, I am sure as I can be that I would not be tempted to pay match day prices to go to home games. I may try just picking and choosing away games.